What a legacy

It’s only right that in the year that 3d has truly come into its own the best thing to shoot you squarely in the face with a double barrel of Imax and 3d technology is Tron, the shiniest thing since Avatar.

Possibly the prettiest thing you will ever see at a cinema, Tron manages to drag you kicking and screaming into its virtual world. Just as relevant now as it was in 1982 it’s a film that has always been at the forefront of technology and I’m sure in some twisted way the sub-plot of Sam Flynn(Garrett Hedlund) falling in love with a computer programme is a comment on modern societies obsession with technology and apps, but I’m not going to get into all that.

The making of Tron:Legacy could have gone terribly wrong and looked like a massive gimmick, luckily it misses that and is just as smooth as looking through a pane of glass. This is what Imax and 3d were invented for and by god it’s amazing. Even Inception looked too big on the Imax screen, but not this. It all feels so sleek and perfect because of the emphasis on colour or lack their of. Light is almost a character unto itself.

While light might not be able to actually act their is no doubt in anybodies mind that the three main leads suffer from that. Garrett Hedlund is relatively new on the scene, having had only small roles in films like Troy and Eragorn, here he comes into his own and could easily be mistaken for Jeff Bridges’ son. The fact that he’s quite good looking doesn’t hurt either and we will surely be seeing him much more now. His female co-star Olivia Wilde, House and The O.C, was beyond brilliant as computer programme Quorra. Her wide-eyed innocence and ability to act so naive while being perfectly trained in anything that was necessary for the scene made her perfect for the role. The main attraction for all involved is undoubtedly Mr. Jeff Bridges. The fact that the man can play two characters equally as brilliant as each other and still bring some of ‘the dude’ to it is just staggering. How does this man sleep at night? Bridges reprises his role as Kevin Flynn and Clu from the original, though this time round Clu has a slightly plastic face, developed by the team who did The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button ageing work. For some people this will be a massive point and may even tip them into dislike for the film, however I disagree, while it could be slightly distracting at times if anything it just emphasises the fact that Clu is a programme while Kevin Flynn is a user. Bridges deserves praise for this dual role though, he has the ability to act with nothing more than his eyes, which is great because the dialogue wasn’t all that. The show stealer though was Michael Sheen as Zuse who seemed to be channelling numerous figures from David Bowie to Riff Raff and was so over the top it was like he was acting in a different film.

It’s a shame for a film that is so aesthetically perfect to be let down by the simple dialogue and over complicated plot. I say simple not because the words themselves were, on the contrary you need a glossary of computer linguistics to understand the majority of it, but when you get down to it they could speak for 20 minutes before you realise nothing has actually been said. In this respect it’s a direct descendant from the first film which is renowned for its impenetrable plot. Legacy doesn’t go that far, but rather takes tangents and liberties which are unexplainable and unexplained.

Don’t let this put you off seeing it though, it was an experience and together with the Daft Punk soundtrack it will stay in your mind, it’s just not the type of experience you want on DVD over and over again.